CONDOR (2018)

Joe Turner is an analyst for the CIA.

To quote the blurb from the production company that released his televised adventures:

"Joe Turner is a young CIA analyst whose idealism is tested when he stumbles onto a terrible but brilliant plan that threatens the lives of millions. Turner is an idealistic millennial who secretly joins the CIA hoping to reform it from within. But when everyone in his office is massacred by professional killers, this brilliant analyst is forced out of his ivory tower think tank and into battle with the most dangerous elements in the military-industrial complex. If he is to have any chance of surviving, Joe will have to do things he never imagined himself capable of - and discover that no one knows their true character until they've been tested under fire."

     Turner who is an idealistic man whose father died while working, he thought, as a diplomat for his country, Turner later learning the elder had in fact been an operative with the CIA who died on a mission. He learns this stunning truth while from his paternal uncle by marriage, the same man who would eventually convince college graduate Turner into following his father into the Agency.

     While Turner is an employee of the CIA and has been one for several years already, it is important to note that above he is in a technical role, not a field operative. More specifically, he helps design and code computer programs to aid in the war against terrorism. He officially works for a company called IEP, owned by and working solely for the Agency, and it was for IEP that two years before the events of the first adventure that he was deeply involved in the creation of a system to "help employees of likely terrorist targets in the Middle East and Europe to help assess the threat potential".

     It will be that computer program which will be the reason for the attack on IEP which will change his life completely while ending those of his fellow workers.

     Joe Turner is, as said, not an agent and he has a major aversion to guns and to hurting people. He is also an extremely intelligent and quick-thinking individual whose brain is constantly firing on all cylinders. For this reason, when a good number of also intelligent and motivated people go after him, he is able to stay one or two steps ahead of them, sometimes just barely but enough to stay alive.

Good Line:

Said by Joe Turner when pressed by his friend to find a new woman to date, "Being in a relationship is like being in a cult. When you're in one, you want everyone else to be in one with you."

     I thought for a long time about whether to include this rendition of Condor in with the original one. Certainly the source material is the same and basic concept of a CIA-affiliated employee being the sole survivor of an attack on his place of work remains the same.

     However so much of this version is different and is, IMHO, so wonderfully crafted, written, acted, and so on that I felt it needed its own entry. Still, I hesitated for a while and then the release of the second season, a second adventure, sealed the deal for me. This Condor was in its own universe with its own set of characters that was unique enough to be on its own.

     I binge-watched the first season and then shortly thereafter did the same for the second. Many a late night resulted because I had to see what happened next. I have big hopes there will be a third season not only because the other two were so good but because (minor spoiler alert here) the second one ended on a cliffhanger.

     One more personal note. In the movie version of the original Condor, the role of the paid assassin, Joubert, was superbly, frighteningly portrayed by Max Von Sydow, making me a huge fan from then on. In this version of Condor, the head of the assassins destroying the work place was a female named Gabrielle Joubert. She was played by Leem Lubany in such an excellent manner that I was not only as in awe of her character, I really hoped that I would see more of her in the future. When you find yourself almost rooting for a cold-blooded killer, well, wow!